Quentin Tarantino Files Lawsuit Over Leaked Script

Director Quentin Tarantino has pulled the plug on his latest big-screen project and is headed instead to court, to sue the website that leaked the script for the movie, CNN reports.

"Tarantino — the actor and director behind ‘Pulp Fiction,’ ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Django Unchained’ — filed suit against the gossip website Gawker on Monday after his script for ‘The Hateful Eight’ leaked online last week," the story reports. "In a federal court filing, he accused the site of ‘blatant copyright infringement by their promotion and dissemination of unauthorized downloadable copies of the leaked unreleased complete screenplay.’"

The suit reportedly says, "There was nothing newsworthy or journalistic" about the website’s actions.

CNN adds: "Although Gawker did not post the script to its own site, Tarantino’s attorney charged the script would not have been widely accessible if Gawker had not linked to it.

"Gawker turned down repeated requests to remove links to download the script, the complaint charges. A Gawker post offering links to the script remained online Monday."

A spokesman for Tarantino told CNN the filmmaker is scrapping plans to produce "The Hateful Eight." The movie is reportedly a Western.

"He told the gossip site Deadline that he had given the script to only six people, including [actor] Michael Madsen, best known as the killer in ‘Reservoir Dogs,’ as well as Bruce Dern and Tim Roth, for whom ‘Reservoir Dogs’ was his breakthrough film," CNN reports. "Somehow, the script leaked. It was posted through a site that lets users anonymously upload and download files."